Casahl plans data integration tools

The company's Replic-Action 5.1 server will boast new features and tools for transferring back-office data to
users of Notes and Exchange.

27 August 19986:50 am AEST

Casahl Technology later this month
plans to rollout a number of new products to boost its family of
server-based integration tools.

Next week, the Danville, California-based company's Replic-Action 5.1 server
will debut with new features and tools for transferring back-office data to
users of Lotus Development's Notes and
Microsoft's Exchange groupware
products.

For example, with the new tools, users can access and manipulate data from
back-end database systems directly from a Notes or Web client interface. The
program?s Real Time Query-by-Form feature provides users with the ability to
query back-end data from and return records to a Notes or Web client in real
time. Replic-Action also enables users to run SQL requests as part of
replication without scripting.

The newest version of this server-based replication, migration, and
integration tool features additional logging of real-time events and the
option of installing real-time components separately.

Replic-Action 5.1 supports replication of back-office data as well as
multiple bidirectional replications into a single Notes form. The new
program also adds support for database scalar functions and a separate
"Create Table" object. The new version also includes enhancements to the
Query-by-Form and support for Notes Server cluster.

One of the new tools that makes Replic-Action technology extend beyond its
traditional groupware accessory niche is RA.Interchange, a product designed
to ease synchronization of multiple Exchange servers.

Another new tool allows two-way synchronization between database systems and
Exchange. RA.Synch allows users to move data back and forth between Exchange
and Microsoft Outlook and their corporate database systems.

"It allows Exchange to go beyond messaging to be able to build mission
critical applications," Casahl CEO and founder Harry Wong said. Users can
"indirectly manipulate data through replication...and you don't have to pay
for new client licenses."

All of the tools are built to work with databases developed by Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase.

Also this month, Casahl releases a tool that integrates Notes and Exchange
with enterprise resource planning systems, like products made by SAP, Baan,
and PeopleSoft. RA.ERP enables
companies to integrate their groupware infrastructure with their back end
ERP systems. The tool provides a point-and-click environment in which users
can build applications for data sharing between their ERP and groupware
systems.

Casahl tops off this bevy of releases with a tool that allows corporations
using Notes and Exchange to synchronize information between the two. The
tool provides support for text fields, file attachments, OLE attachments,
Lotus Notes doclinks, discussion threading, and response hierarchies.

Analysts said that because Notes is an older product in the corporate world,
the tool will help organizations deploy Notes data to their newer Exchange
network.

"It is common for big corporations to have two to three separate mail
systems. This product will fit in nicely in this messaging world," said Tim
Sloan, an analyst with the Aberdeen
Group.

Pricing for the different integration tools ranges from $8,000 for the
RA.Synch product to $80,000 for the RA.ERP product, Wong said.